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| January 22, 2003 | Wednesday | Ziqa’ad 18, 1423 |
Agassi and Venus cruise into semifinals
MELBOURNE, Jan 21: Andre Agassi relied on brains, Venus Williams leant heavily on brawn and Wayne Ferreira drew on more than a decade of experience to reach the Australian Open semifinals on Tuesday.
South African Ferreira, last in a grand slam semifinal 11 years ago when he lost to Stefan Edberg in Melbourne, was inspired as he hustled out fourth-seeded Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-6 7-6 6-1.
Only a couple of vowels separated the pair’s names on the scoreboard but they were streets apart in terms of temperament on the big points, Ferrero flailing wildly at key moments while Ferreira kept his cool.
Ferreira can only hope his new-found maturity is enough against Agassi — his elder by a year — after the American wove a web of intricate tactics to confound Sebastien Grosjean and reach the last four.
The pair have played 10 times, Agassi winning on each occasion and Ferreira claiming just a solitary set.
Certainly Ferreira will have to find something special if he is to stand a chance against a red-hot Agassi, who was ruthless in his dismissal of Sebastien Grosjean earlier on Tuesday.
What he could easily have said was that he blunted every Grosjean weapon, stifled every French hope and forced the 12th seed to dance to his rhythm throughout the 6-3 6-2 6-2 victory.
Chasing a fourth Australian singles crown, a record for an overseas player, Agassi played nearly every point to perfection, directing rallies throughout and bamboozling Grosjean for two mesmerising hours.
Agassi, the number two seed, has not lost here for 19 matches. The 2000 and 2001 Australian Open champion was unable to defend his title last year, pulling out on the eve of the tournament with a wrist injury, but looks in great shape to snatch back the trophy.
Grosjean sweated and toiled, even though a cool breeze relieved Melbourne Park from the scorching temperatures which had caused a suspension of play just 24 hours earlier.
The locals call it a “cool change” — that Melbourne phenomenon where erratic temperature swings of up to 20 degrees Celsius from one day to the next are the norm.
But there was no relief for Grosjean as Agassi turned the screw on centre court.
While Agassi was all guile and artistry, Venus flexed her muscles to overpower the slightly-built Daniela Hantuchova for a 6-4 6-3 victory — at one point threatening her own service speed record.
Her 75-minute win over the seventh seed was littered with mistakes, including no fewer that 32 unforced errors, but the American raised her game when she needed to.
Williams struggled to find rhythm on her serve, landing just 53 percent of her first deliveries, but when she got it right, she won 87 percent of points.
Her 201 kph serve — just four kph slower than her own record set in 1998 — was 12 kph faster than Agassi’s best effort against Grosjean and equal to the Frenchman’s hardest serve.
Re-focus she did, closing out the match to move a step closer to a first Australian Open crown.
First she will have to get past fifth seed Justine Henin- Hardenne who showed no sign of the heat sickness that struck during her marathon win over Lindsay Davenport in beating Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2 6-2.
After dropping her opening serve the newly-married Belgian reeled off 12 of the next 14 games to secure a comfortable victory over the unseeded Spaniard.
Quarterfinal results:
Mens:
Wayne Ferreira (South Africa) bt Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) 6-1; Andre Agassi (U.S.) bt Sebastien Grosjean (France) 6-3 6-2 6-2
Women:
Henin-Hardenne bt Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2 6-2;
Venus Williams bt Daniela Hantuchova 6-4 6-3.—Reuters
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